THINE  ONLY  SON 

OR  THE 

STEWARDSHIP 
OF  FAMILY  LIFE 


By 

EDWIN  M.  POTEAT,  D.D. 


INTERCHURCH  WORLD  MOVEMENT 
OF  NORTH  AMERICA 

45  WEST  18th  STREET  NEW  YORK  CITY 


Price,  2 cents  each,  20  cents 
per  dozen;  $1.50  per  hundred 


THINE  ONLY  SON 

Or  the  Stewardship  of  Family  Life 

By  EDWIN  M.  POTEAT 

nE  HAD  left  his  home  in  the  heart 
of  a great  civilization.  He  had 
gone  into  a strange  land  to  start 
life  over  again.  He  had  tithed 
his  gains;  but  the  real  test  of  Abraham’s 
loyalty  to  his  calling  came  later,  after 
Isaac  had  opened  the  fountains  of  love 
in  his  father’s  heart. 

The  family  is  complete  only  in  the  child, 
the  union  of  father  and  mother  in  one 
new  creation — bone  of  their  bone  and 
flesh  of  their  flesh — their  own  personal- 
ities projecting  themselves  in  the  com- 
posite personality  in  whom  they  are 
blended  in  indissoluble  union.  They  are 
declared  one  flesh  in  the  wedding  cere- 
mony; they  become  one  flesh  in  reality 
first  and  only  in  the  child.  *It  is  for  this 
reason  that  “forever  the  Master  sets  the 
child  in  the  midst  as  the  symbol  of  His 
kingdom,”  since  the  child  is  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  sacrament  of  love  and  the 
bond  of  union  of  souls  which  have  ac- 
tually .become  one  in  him.  “Lo,  children 
are  a heritage  of  the  Lord,  and  the 
fruit  of  the  womb  is  his  reward.  As 
arrows  in  the  hand  of  a mighty  man,  so 
are  the  children  of  youth.”  (Psa.  127 :3,  4). 

Yes,  Abraham  loved  Sarah,  but  great 
stretches  of  his  nature  were  like  a desert 


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THINE  ONLY  SON 


waste  till  Isaac  came.  Then  he  knew,  but 
not  till  then,  what  life  could  mean — what 
enlargement  of  heart,  what  expansion  of 
outlook,  what  fear  and  hope.  Ask  a 
mother  what  is  the  sweetest  music  she 
ever  heard,  and  she  will  answer:  “The 
first  cry  of  my  first  born.”  And  here  in 
a letter  to  his  own  mother  is  a young 
father’s  account : “It  was  splendidly 
done,  and  in  an  incredibly  short  time 
there  was  that  bursting  into  new  life  with 
a cry  that  spelled  success.  When  his 
mother  waked,  I whispered  to  her  that  a 
son  had  come,  and  she,  of  course,  bless 
her,  just  closed  her  tired  eyes  and  wept 
for  the  joy  of  her  first  born.  And  so  did 
I.  That  was  about  all  there  was  to  it. 
When  things  were  all  straightened  up  and 
for  one  fleeting  moment  we  three  were 
left  alone  in  the  room,  I knelt  by  the 
bed  and  gave  him  back  to  the  Lord,  and 
thanked  Him  for  his  fine  strong  body,  and 
for  his  safe  arrival,  and  asked  that  he 
might  be  used  always  for  His  glory,  and 
of  course  we  had  to  cry  a little  more,  as 
the  indescribable  little  grunts  and  gurgles 
came  from  under  the  little  blue  blanket 
in  the  basket.  At  ten-thirty  I came  back 
into  the  city.  All  the  kindling  ecstacies 
of  pride  and  happiness  made  me  fairly 
burst  as  I came  along;  . . . the  old 

man  who  carries  water  for  us  straight- 
ened up  as  he  passed,  and  there  was  a 
genuine  twinkle  in  his  old  cross-eyes  as 
he  offered  his  congratulations.” 


THINE  ONLY  SON 


5 


God’s  gifts  are  manifold,  but  the  best 
of  them  all  is  the  child,  in  whom  He  per- 
petually renews  the  life  of  the  world, 
keeping  it  young,  and  in  whom  He  keeps 
love’s  fountains  full  flowing,  fresh  and 
clean. 

Now  it  follows  from  all  this  that  the 
Christian  demand  is  never  met  until  all 
the  family  and  all  its  life  and  interests 
are  surrendered  to  God. 

A pastor  on  reaching  home  after  the 
Sunday  morning  service  was  met  in  the 
hallway  by  his  daughter  in  the*  full  fresh- 
ness and  beauty  of  young  womanhood. 
She  said : 

“Father,  I was  much  impressed  by 
your  prayer  for  missionary  recruits  this 
morning,  and  my  heart  said,  why 
shouldn’t  I go?” 

“But  I didn’t  mean  you,  my  child!” 

It  was  not  until  he  had  escaped  to  the 
solitude  of  his  study  that  he  realized  that 
he  had  not  really  meant  anybody  because 
he  had  not  meant  his  own  daughter  1 

It  was  not  easy  for  Abraham  to  break 
up  housekeeping  and  business  in  Ur  of 
the  Chaldees,  and  strike  out  anew  in  a 
strange  city;  but  he  did  it.  It  was  not 
easy  for  him  to  divide  his  spoils  with  a 
strange  king;  but  he  did.  But  the  com- 
mand to  offer  his  son — “thy  son,  thine 
only  son,  Isaac,  whom  thou  lovest” — fell 
like  a sledge  hammer  on  his  heart.  Yet 
the  record  bears  no  trace  of  hesitation  on 
his  part;  no  word  of  a sleepless  night,  or 


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THINE  ONLY  SON 


of  anguished  writhing  in  the  terrible 
dilemma  of  disobeying  God  or  disbeliev- 
ing his  promise  concerning  this  son. ' No; 
the  record  says  quite  simply  that  he  arose 
in  the  morning  and  set  out  on  the  jour- 
ney. And  when  they  reached  the  foot  of 
the  hill  where  the  Son  of  God  will  one 
day  furnish  the  final  demonstration  of 
love  that  withholds  nothing,  the  son,  in- 
nocent of  all  knowledge  of  the  meaning 
of  their  errand,  breaks  their  long  silence 
with  “Father,  here  is  wood  and  fire;  but 
where  is  the  lamb  for  the  offering?” 

The  father  bit  his  lips  and  choked  back 
his  sobs  and  said,  “God  will  provide  a 
lamb  for  the  offering,  my  son.”  “Behold 
the  Lamb  of  God” — his  own  Son — “that 
taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world !” 

And  because  Abraham  withheld  not  his 
son  he  is  entitled  to  be  called  the  Friend 
of  God. 

So  it  is  that  family  life  reaches  its  con- 
summation when  our  children,  given  to 
God,  are  given  back  to  us  with  the  halo 
of  usefulness  in  the  kingdom  on  their 
heads. 

But  we  reach  this  mount  Moriah  by 
stages,  often  slow  and  painful.  We  be- 
gin with  casual  gifts  of  money,  the  loose 
change  in  our  pockets.  Then  we  write 
a check  in  the  more  deliberate  conviction 
that  missions  deserve  to  be  supported. 
Then  we  set  apart  a definite  portion  of 
income,  thus  acknowledging  a relation- 
ship to  God  in  our  business,  and  tak- 


THINE  ONLY  SON 


7 


ing,  as  Lacordaire  said,  the  high  road 
to  Christian  disentanglement  of  heart. 
Then  we  give  our  time  in  personal  serv- 
ice, attend  conferences,  join  study  groups 
on  missions.  “But  do  not  ask  me  to  give 
my  child !”  Then  you  mean  you  cannot 
complete  the  Moriah  journey? 

A hundred  years  ago  a successful 
young  physician  went  home  from  the 
death  bed  of  a little  child  in  New  York 
with  a pain  in  his  heart  for  the  millions 
of  children  in  India  sick  and  dying  with 
no  physician  to  help  them.  His  wife 
promptly  shared  the  purpose  which  be- 
gan to  take  shape  in  his  mind.  But 
when  he  told  his  father  about  it,  that  good 
soul  said,  “Never!”  A month  later  the 
son  heard  his  father’s  ultimatum ; “The 
day  you  go  to  India,  I disinherit  you  as 
my  son.”  John  Scudder  went  to  India; 
and  not  long  ago  (1918)  some  one  made  a 
eount  of  the  years  he  and  his  children 
nave  given  to  India,  and  found  that  there 
were  a thousand  years  of  missionary 
service  in  his  loins  when  over  his  father’s 
refusal  and  protests  he  went  to  India  to 
heal  the  distresses  of  the  poor  in  the 
name  of  Jesus. 

To  oiir  children  God  says,  “Son, 
daughter,  give  me  thy  heart  and  thy  life.” 
To  us  who  are  parents  He  says,  “Give  me 
thy  child.”  “Take  now  thy  son,  thine  only 
son,  whom  thou  lovest.  . . . and  get 
thee  into  the  land  of  Moriah  and  oflFer  him 
there  for  a burnt-offering.”  We  must  be 


g 


THINE  ONLY  SON 


brave  enough  to  tell  ourselves  plainly 
that  it  is  not  love  of  our  children  but  sel- 
fishness which  interposes  our  self-will  be- 
tween them  and  the  will  of  God  for  their 
lives. 

What  happens  to  family  life  and  love 
when  they  are  subordinated  to  the  will  of 
God  and  love  of  His  kingdom?  We  shall 
find  the  answer  to  this  question  in  two 
sayings  of  our  Lord.  In  Luke  14:25,  He 
enjoins  the  subordination  of  family  love 
— the  love  of  parents,  children,  brothers, 
sisters — and  in  Matthew  12  :49  He  tells  us 
that  for  those  who  do  the  will  of  God  fam- 
ily relationships  are  transfigured  by  being 
lifted  up  and  embraced  in  the  heavenly 
household  in  which  God  is  Father  and 
himself  is  the  Elder  Brother.  In  which 
case  parents  and  children  find  their  high- 
est happiness  in  a comradeship  of  service 
where  both  are  equally  obedient  to  the 
holy  and  gracious  will  of  God. 

“Now  I know  that  thou  fearest  God 
seeing  thou  hast  not  withheld  thy  son, 
thine  only  son,  from  me.”  (Gen.  22  :12.) 


No.  265  L.  W.  III.  100,  Jan.  ’20 


